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A CITY TRANSFORMED The Racial and Ethnic Changes in Philadelphia Over the Last 20 Years June 1, 2011 KEY FINDINGS As documented by the 2010 Census, Philadelphia has experienced significant changes in its ethnic and racial composition over the last two decades, with many neighborhoods undergoing sweeping transformations. Since 1990, the city’s white population has fallen by nearly a third. The black population has shifted to new parts of the city. The Asian population has more than doubled. And the rapidly growing His- panic population has expanded far beyond its traditional home in eastern North Philadelphia. The changes were especially striking in Northeast Philadelphia, which went from 92 percent white in 1990 to 58.3 percent white in 2010. Despite losing one-third of its white residents during the period, the Northeast grew in population by 5.4 percent, thanks to an array of new arrivals. In 1990, the Northeast had only small contingents of blacks, Hispanics and Asians. In 2010, it had substantial numbers of all three groups. The Lower Northeast neighborhoods that experienced the largest decline in white population—among them Frankford, Fox Chase, Mayfair and Oxford Circle—gained population overall, recording 20-year growth rates in excess of 10 percent. The biggest change in the ethnic and racial makeup of Philadelphia has been the decline of the white population. Over the last two decades, the number of non-Hispanic whites in the city fell by 31.9 percent. See Figure 1. The number of white residents lost by the city, 263,254, is larger than the entire population of Buffalo, N.Y. FIGURE 1 CHANGES IN PHILADELPHIA’s PoPULAtion, 1990–2010 1990 Total 2010 Total Change Total PERCENT African American 623,510 644,287 20,777 3.3% Non-Hispanic White 825,839 562,585 -263,254 -31.9% Hispanic or Latino 89,193 187,611 98,418 110.3% Asian 42,156 95,521 53,365 126.6% Multi-race and other 4,879 36,002 31,123 637.9% Total 1,585,577 1,526,006 -59,571 -3.8% The Philadelphia Research Initiative | www.pewtrusts.org/philaresearch A CITY TRANSFORMED 2 The Racial and Ethnic Changes in Philadelphia Over the Last 20 Years The city’s African-American population grew by 3.3 percent from 1990 to 2010, a percentage that suggests relative stability. But during that period, there was a significant shift in the black population, away from the core areas of North and West Philadelphia to Southwest Philadelphia, Overbrook, the Lower Northeast and elsewhere. For example, the number of blacks in zip code 19120—which includes the neighborhoods of Olney and Feltonville and abuts Montgomery Coun- ty—rose from 9,786 in 1990 to 33,209 in 2010, an increase of 239 percent. During the two decades, the city’s Hispanic population, which swelled by 110 percent, moved be- yond the North Fifth Street corridor, that community’s longtime social and commercial focus. In fact, the number of Hispanics in the neighborhoods along the corridor changed little during the 20-year period. The big growth occurred elsewhere, throughout the lower parts of Northeast Philadelphia and in sections of South Philadelphia. The expansion of the Asian population, up 127 percent, was more uniform citywide, with the largest increases recorded in parts of Northeast Philadelphia and South Philadelphia as well as the Univer- sity City section of West Philadelphia. Over 20 years, the city as a whole lost 3.8 percent of its population, though all of the decline was in the 1990s, with a 0.6 percent increase in the 2000s. The headcount in Center City rose 42.9 per- cent. Neighborhoods along the North Broad Street corridor—from Susquehanna Avenue north to the city line—declined by 17.7 percent. More modest reductions were recorded in West Philadel- phia, Southwest Philadelphia, Northwest Philadelphia and South Philadelphia. Several neighborhoods, defined in this report by zip code, were all but remade in ethnic and racial terms: • Port Richmond (19134) had 7,112 Hispanics in 1990; two decades later, it had 26,807. • The Elmwood section of Southwest Philadelphia (19142) saw its black population rise from 6,586 to 22,518, its white population fall from 21,144 to 2,598. • In Fairmount North (19121), which includes Brewerytown, the white population nearly quadrupled, going from 1,490 to 5,524. All of the numbers in this report are based on a counting method used by the Census in which all Hispanics or Latinos, regardless of race, are counted solely as people of Hispanic origin. In this counting regimen, “white” means non-Hispanic white and “black” means African American. The Philadelphia Research Initiative | www.pewtrusts.org/philaresearch A CITY TRANSFORMED 3 The Racial and Ethnic Changes in Philadelphia Over the Last 20 Years THE DECLINE IN THE WHITE POPULATION Over the course of two decades, the white population of Philadelphia fell by 263,254 or 31.9 per- cent. Whites went from being 52.1 percent of the city’s population in 1990 to 36.9 percent in 2010. See Figure 2. More of the drop (181,444) occurred in the 1990s than in the 2000s (81,810). In 1990, Philadelphia was a city understood largely in terms of white and black. At the time, it was a majority-white city with a large black minority and small groups of Hispanics and Asians. Two de- cades later, it is a plurality-black city with a large but dwindling white minority and rapidly expand- ing contingents of Hispanics and Asians. The map in Figure 3 shows the changes in the white population by zip code. In 11 of the city’s 46 residential zip codes, the number of whites fell by at least half. The largest drops were in Olney, Overbrook, Oak Lane, Elmwood and Eastwick; in those areas, the declines exceeded 75 percent. Areas in which the white declines were below the citywide average include Northwest Philadelphia and much of the Far Northeast. For the data on which Figure 3 is based, see Appendix Table 1. What makes the magnitude of the citywide decline in the white population all the more striking is that it happened even as whites were becoming substantially more numerous in the central part of Philadelphia—Center City and nearby neighborhoods, 11 zip codes in all. The biggest increases in percentage terms came in the gentrifying areas just north of Center City, including Northern Liberties (up 104 percent) and Fairmount North (up 271 percent). FIGURE 2 THE CHANGING RACIAL AND ETHNIC MAKEUP OF PHILADELPHIA, 1990-2010 1990 2010 NON- NON- HISPANIC AFRICAN HISPANIC AFRICAN WHITE AMERICAN WHITE AMERICAN 52.1% 39.3% 36.9% 42.2% HISPANIC HISPANIC OR LATINO MULTI-RACE OR LATINO OTHER 5.6% AND OTHER 12.3% 0.3% 2.3% ASIAN ASIAN 2.7% 6.3% The Philadelphia Research Initiative | www.pewtrusts.org/philaresearch A CITY TRANSFORMED 4 The Racial and Ethnic Changes in Philadelphia Over the Last 20 Years FIGURE 3 CHANGES IN PHILADELPHIA’s White PoPULAtion, 1990–2010 Increased 10 percent or more + Increased 0 to 9.99 percent Decreased 0 to 9.99 percent 19116 Decreased 10 to 29.99 percent NORTHEAST – – BUSTLETON NORTH, SOMERTON Decreased 30 to 49.99 percent Decreased 50 percent or more 19154 19115 NORTHEAST – NORTHEAST – TORRESDALE NORTH BUSTLETON SOUTH 19114 19118 19150 NORTHEAST – CHESTNUT HILL CEDARBROOK TORRESDALE SOUTH 19111 19152 NORTHEAST – NORTHEAST – FOX CHASE RHAWNHURST 19138 19126 19128 19119 GERMANTOWN OAK LANE ROXBOROUGH MOUNT AIRY EAST 19136 19149 NORTHEAST – NORTHEAST – 19141 HOLMESBURG MAYFAIR, LOGAN OXFORD CIRCLE 19144 19120 GERMANTOWN OLNEY, 19127 FELTONVILLE 19135 NORTHEAST – 19124 TA CONY MANAYUNK NORTHEAST – FRANKFORD 19129 19140 EAST FALLS NICETOWN 19132 19134 19137 NORTH PHILA. – 19133 PORT RICHMOND NORTHEAST – WEST NORTH BRIDESBURG 19131 PHILA. – WYNNEFIELD – 19121 EAST WEST PARK FAIRMOUNT NORTH, BREWERYTOWN 19125 KENSINGTON – FISHTOWN 19151 19122 OVERBROOK NORTH PHILA. – YORKTOWN 19130 FAIRMOUNT 19139 19123 NORTH PHILA. – NORTHERN LIBERTIES 19104 SOUTH WEST PHILA. – WEST PHILA. – CENTER CITY – WEST WEST MARKET UNIVERSITY 19103 19102 19107 CITY CENTER CITY – WEST 19143 19106 CENTER CITY – WASHINGTON SQUARE SW PHILA. – 19146 KINGSESSING SOUTH PHILA. – CENTER CITY – SOCIETY HILL SCHUYLKILL 19147 SOUTH PHILA. – BELLA VISTA 19142 SW PHILA. – 19145 ELMWOOD SOUTH PHILA. – 19148 WEST SOUTH PHILA. – EAST 19153 EASTWICK The Philadelphia Research Initiative | www.pewtrusts.org/philaresearch A CITY TRANSFORMED 5 The Racial and Ethnic Changes in Philadelphia Over the Last 20 Years THE NEW NORTHEAST PHILADELPHIA In no part of the city have the changes over the last 20 years been more pronounced than North- east Philadelphia, particularly the Lower Northeast. As of 1990, according to the Census count, Northeast Philadelphia had 409,902 residents, 377,169 of whom were white. In 2010, it had 432,073 residents, 252,022 of whom were white. Over those 20 years, Northeast Philadelphia went from 92 percent to 58.3 percent white. During the same period, the black population grew in the Northeast from 3.4 percent of the whole to 18 percent, the Hispanic population from 2.3 percent to 13.9 percent, the Asian population from 2.1 percent to 7.3 percent. See Figure 4. In racial and ethnic terms, the Northeast became more like the rest of the city than it had been and less like a separate place. For the purposes of this report, the Northeast is defined as the 11 zip codes starting with Frankford and Bridesburg on the south and moving to the north and east from there. The influx of blacks, Hispanics and Asians in Northeast Philadelphia was more than enough to offset the departure of whites. From 1990 to 2010, the overall population of the Northeast grew by 5.4 percent even as the city as a whole was shrinking by 3.8 percent.

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